If your plan is to escape the crowds of one of the world’s busiest water sport locations, then heading to deepest Peru is a pretty sure bet for scoring some isolated water time and world class wing conditions. And don’t forget to visit the jungle…
Words: Jerome Cloetens
Photos: Giancarlo Escobedo Flores
The land of the lefts? The land of infinity waves? The dreamy chocolate wave land? I don’t know how to name Peru and how to start telling you about this trip: Peru just has everything. Coast, mountains, jungle… It’s simply insane. Peru post covid was one of the best trips of my life. No tourists around, more waves than I could handle, and just insane wildlife and nature.
Let’s perhaps start by saying I took around 20 waves of around five to eight minutes each in just one day. My legs felt like they were not part of my body anymore and it was the first time in my life I had to take a break while still being on the wave. Here you can literally surf the wave for two minutes, relax for a couple of minutes and then surf it again for another three minutes.
Or perhaps let’s start at the start, and I’ll tell you how my trip went, so if you ever want to go you know what to do and mostly what not to do… So I left the crowds of Tarifa at the end of the summer for the empty waves of Peru. I flew into Lima and went straight to Punta Hermosa (one hour from the airport) to check a few surf spots. I stayed there for two days, and I don’t recommend it. I mean, it is good, but the north of Peru is 10x better…
My first mission of the trip was to get to Pacasmayo from Lima which was incredibly easy. A night bus leaves almost every night from Lima and in just 12 hours you are two minutes away from the surf spot.
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Every day is a dream over there. The weather there works like a Swiss clock, changing exactly on time every day. No wind in the morning, so perfect for surfing, then at 12 o’clock the wind kicks in with the perfect side/side-off wind direction for kiting, and last but not least it turns offshore so the wave gets even cleaner and it becomes perfect for winging. I literally spent around five to six hours a day in the water during my stay there. I was never bored because I could change disciplines three times a day!
The wave’s usual size is between one and three meters, which is the perfect size for kiting but sometimes it gets a bit too big for the wing. When that happens, you just have to go to Chicama. The Disneyland of foiling, and only one hour away from Pacasmayo.
There you can get a boat for 30 dollars that takes you three kilometers out into the ocean and lets you foil right into the shore. Then you get back on the boat and do it all over again till you can’t breathe anymore.
The vibe at Pacasmayo and Chicama is on point. Everyone is nice both inside and outside of the water. Nobody is stressed about getting waves since the waves never stop over there. I strongly recommend staying at El Faro, which is right in front of the surf spot and it is the best place to meet the locals, which I believe is always important when you get to a new spot. If the hotel El Faro surpasses your budget, staying in town is also on an option, and the place I’d recommend is El Mirador / @paccasmayosurf. It’s very old school but I loved my time there as well.
After two weeks, 3,293,229 waves and 2291 wipeouts, I decided to go to the other side of Peru to do a 120km trek over the mountains. Two things I can definitely say about that: the first is don’t underestimate altitude, and the second is bring your foil, because there are some insane lakes on top of the mountains around the Cuzco area that get windy enough to wing foil. So after sleeping in a tent and barely surviving my experience at 5000m height, I went into the Amazon jungle, which was definitely one of the best experiences of my life. I know it’s not related to foiling but if you go to Peru, you just have to go into the jungle man…
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